Another key to more efficiently using water in the Park City/Snyderville area would be to merge several of the privately owned water companies in the area, Anderson said. In addition to the countywide Mountain Regional Water Special Service District and the Park City water service, several smaller companies provide water to isolated developments.

If all the water suppliers could coordinate their efforts, Anderson said, water could be more efficiently conveyed and stored. Several companies have already merged their operations, he added, making it possible to streamline water delivery and infrastructure.

"They've hooked those systems together so now they're one system, and if something goes wrong they're interconnected and you can move water from one area to another," he said.

Park City has already begun to plan for the projected water needs, water manager Kathy Dunks said. Work is currently under way on the Boothill Pipeline project that will add another line to the city's water network and create a new storage tank. Park City also purchased rights to 1,000 acre feet of water each year from the Jordanelle Reservoir.

"Park City is going to grow, and in order to meet those demands we'll have to expand our infrastructure," Dunks said. "We need insurance, too. We would propose backup water so if one of our sources goes down it doesn't mean we're in dire straits."

The city is also pushing to meet the state's conservation goal, imposing strict water ordinances in the summer and using a water rate structure requiring residents to pay more if they use more.

Those conservation programs, Dunks said, have contributed to a decrease in water use per residential customer.

"We need to look at regional solutions instead of just our own solutions. If we look at just our own, somebody's going to lose," she said.

But Steve Noyes, team leader for the bureau study, is not sure conservation efforts in Park City are going to make a significant difference. Tourists streaming through the resort town are unlikely to pay much attention to water use or water rates, he said.

"Residents in Park City are fairly well-to-do, and these are their second homes," he said. "All the people come to play. When they buy a $2 million house, they don't really care about the price of water."

One thing that will most likely not affect the bureau's predictions, Noyes added, is the drought that has plagued Utah for six years and the possible runoff from recently augmented snowpacks.

Although the weather may affect short-term water retention and groundwater availability, Noyes said the long-term shortages will happen even with record runoff and an end to the drought. Much of that runoff will be wasted, Noyes added, if the basin and Park City don't add additional storage capacity to conserve the water for dry summer months.

For Dunks, the increased runoff hoped for this year will increase groundwater levels for at least a short time, but eventually more permanent solutions are needed.

"Runoff will recharge our wells here, and we do get a delayed increase in flow out of the tunnels," Dunks said. "All of that will help, but the long-term is still a question."

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com